Consuming Success

Assistant Professor of Marketing Mitch Hamilton’s fascination with human behavior extends to the classroom, where his students examine the key role it plays in developing effective marketing strategies. A native of San Diego, California, Hamilton has been evolving LMU students into successful marketers for the past eight years.

“LMU students are very altruistic and socially conscious,” Hamilton said, “which is especially important for business students.”

Hamilton, who received his Ph.D. in Consumer Behavior from Syracuse University and his MBA from Clark Atlanta University, encourages his students to become “marketing superheroes” for the greater good, while showing them how to stay true to who they are and draw from their own unique experiences to create authentic strategies and relevant marketing ideas.

Drawn to LMU for its devotion to both teaching and research, Hamilton describes his pedagogy as a flipped classroom approach; students watch lectures and simulated case study discussion videos at home while the real hands-on, experiential learning occurs in the classroom through team projects and interactive collaborations.

“LMU was a perfect fit for me in terms of what I was looking for in a university,” Hamilton said. “I feel like it is a place where people can be individuals – a place they are genuinely encouraged to be themselves.”

The LMU College of Business Administration has distinguished itself in recent years as a hub for innovation and collaboration offering students entrepreneurial learning opportunities in Los Angeles and around the world. Most notably, several LMU business programs earned top spots in U.S. News World Report’s 2021 listings of “Best Colleges,” including for Entrepreneurship, No. 20; Marketing, No. 27; Accounting, No. 32; and Analytics, No. 19.

Hamilton’s marketing courses focus on “positive societal transformation” and are offered by the A-LIST, one of the Marketing program’s four content-specific and career-focused curriculum “Pathways.” The ultimate goal of the A-LIST Pathway is to produce future business leaders with the understanding that profit-maximization and societal well-being are not mutually exclusive.

Hamilton has helped to develop and launch two new courses for this Pathway, “Rethinking the Marketplace” and “Brand Storytelling.” Both courses empower students to work on industry-involved experiential learning projects. For example, last semester his “Brand Storytelling” students pitched data-driven branded content ideas to industry partners Bill Glaser (CEO of Outstanding Foods) and Snoop Dogg (music icon/Outstanding Foods Investor) via a "Shark Tank" style virtual pitch event.

Outside of the classroom, Hamilton is co-advisor for the LMU Marketing Society and a former faculty advisor for the LMU Chapter of TEDx. Prior to LMU, he was an instructor at Syracuse University, a market research analyst, and worked for a collegiate athletics marketing department.

As for what advice he has for future LMU students?

“Use this time to figure out who you truly are,” Hamilton said. “You are going to have a very unique learning experience so embrace it, enjoy it, and immerse yourself in it.”